Tasers can be part of a fatal police equation

The officer had an immediate explanation after shooting an unarmed black man during a traffic stop in South Carolina: He said he fired in self-defense after a struggle over his stun gun.

But his initial claim points to a policing paradox that has civil rights advocates alarmed. Promoted as tools to avoid lethal force, stun guns can sometimes become part of a deadly equation.

"Officers need to be spending more time de-escalating situations, instead of resorting to the use of this very convenient tool," said Emma Andersson, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. "The jury's still out on whether or not it's lethal force, but it's not nothing - it's very dangerous."

Officer Michael Slager was charged with murder and then fired from the North Charleston Police Department after a bystander's iPhone video captured him shooting a fleeing Walter Scott in the back after failing to subdue him with a Taser.

Long sentences meted out in Iraq shooting deaths

WASHINGTON - Rejecting pleas for mercy, a federal judge on Monday sentenced former Blackwater security guard Nicholas Slatten to life in prison and three others to 30-year terms for their roles in a 2007 shooting that killed 14 Iraqi civilians and wounded 17 others.

The carnage in Baghdad's Nisoor Square, a crowded traffic circle, caused an international uproar over the use of private security guards in a war zone and remains one of the low points of the war in Iraq.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced Slatten, who witnesses said was the first to fire shots in the melee, to life on a charge of first-degree murder. The three other guards - Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard - were each sentenced to 30 years and one day in prison for charges that included manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and using firearms while committing a felony.

Gunman sought in community college killing

GOLDSBORO, N.C. - A 20-year-old former community college student fatally shot a campus print shop director who had recently fired him, just as his old boss arrived for work Monday morning, school officials and authorities said.

A manhunt was underway for the suspect, Kenneth Morgan Stancil III. Authorities are pursuing him on an open count of murder, Wayne County Sheriff Larry Pierce said.

Authorities believe Stancil has left the area but is still in North Carolina. They have not released a motive for the shooting.

Stancil entered a large Wayne Community College building about 8 a.m. with a rifle and went to the third-floor print shop. Stancil's former work-study boss, Ron Lane, was killed in the print shop. He had worked at the school for 18 years.

- The Associated Press